Gryffindor corresponds roughly to the element of fire, and it is for that reason that the colours red and gold were chosen to represent the House[1].The colour of fire corresponds to that of a lion as well, red representing the mane and tail and gold representing the coat.

Contents

Traits

The Gryffindor house emphasises the traits of courage as well as "daring, nerve, and chivalry," and thus its members are generally regarded as brave, though sometimes to the point of recklessness. They can also be short-tempered. Notably, Gryffindor house contributed many members to Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix.

According to Phinaes Nigellus Black, members of other houses, particularly Slytherin, sometimes feel that Gryffindors engage in "pointless heroics." Another Slytherin, Severus Snape, considered many Gryffindors to be self-righteous and arrogant, with no regard for rules.

Reputation

Gryffindors and Slytherins have shared a fierce house rivalry since their founders, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, respectively, had a severe falling out over Slytherin's emphasis on blood purity. There might also be an element of feeling wronged; as Harry and his fellow Gryffindors tend to win in a lot of circumstances which, when viewed from a Slytherin's point of view, may be considered unfair. Examples of this include the last-minute points awarded by Headmaster Dumbledore at the Leaving Feast, which conveniently put Gryffindor ten points ahead of Slytherin in the 1991–1992 school year, the fact that no points were deducted for the rule breaking that happened during that night and Harry being permitted by Professor McGonagall to have his own broomstick for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, even though first-years are not normally permitted their own broomsticks.

The lion, symbol of Gryffindor House

Even members of other houses might have felt that Gryffindor received favouritism, considering that many saw Harry being chosen as the fourth competitor in the Triwizard Tournament as stealing Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory's thunder unfairly.

Overall, however, the houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tended to side with Gryffindor in its rivalry with Slytherin. This was particularly notable during the Second Wizarding War — the members of Dumbledore's Army were from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, but lacked any Slytherins (This may be because they were not notified of the Army's creation as it came through word of mouth and they did not seem to associate with many or any Slytherins), and during the Battle of Hogwarts, the Slytherin students left while many students from the other three houses remained behind to fight against Lord Voldemort.

Common Room

The Gryffindor common room

The Gryffindor Common Room is located in one of the castle's towers (Gryffindor Tower), the entrance to which is located on the seventh floor and is guarded by an oil painting of the Fat Lady, who is garbed in a pink silk dress. She permits entry only after being given the correct (regularly changing) password. Behind her painting is a large common room, with a fireplace, and two staircases leading up to the girls' and boys' dormitories.

There is a spell on the girls' staircase that prevents boys from using it, however there is no such enchantment on the staircase to the boys' dormitory, allowing girls to use it whenever they wish, due to the founders' belief that girls were more trustworthy. The common room is very comfortable, and members of the Gryffindor house meet there for study groups, celebrations, or relaxation. The walls are lined with portraits, each one depicting a previous or current Head of Gryffindor

Behind the scenes

J.K. Rowling was once asked in an interview into which House would she sort British politician and former Prime minister Gordon Brown, were she the Sorting Hat. She jokingly responded that she would sort him into Gryffindor, because of the red colours of his political party, which match the colours of Gryffindor.

Rubeus Hagrid stated in the first book that all the wizards who went bad were from Slytherin, however, Peter Pettigrew, who was in Gryffindor disproves this. Hagrid, however, didn't know that Pettigrew was still alive, or that he was working for Voldemort. (It should also be noted that Quirinus Quirrell, a Ravenclaw, was working for Voldemort at the time, although Hagrid was unaware of this as well.) Another reason why this is odd is that, at the time, Sirius Black was believed to have gone bad (Hagrid's comments in the Three Broomsticks prove that he knew nothing of the truth in this instance), and he was also a Gryffindor. So Hagrid would have known of at least one Gryffindor who had 'gone bad'. He most likely did not mention this so that Harry would not try to find out more about his godfather, or it could have been 'Gryffindor propaganda', since Slytherin and Gryffindor are known rivals. It is also possible that Hagrid did not remember these exceptions at the time.

It should be noted that the colours and emblems of Gryffindor resemble the historical English coat of arms. Whether this was intentional on Rowling's part is unknown.

Gryffindor House won the second House Cup in Pottermore; their reward for winning was Gryffindor-related downloadable material.

Fillius Flitwick was a Hatstall: the Hat wavered between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, before finally choosing the latter.

Etymology

Gryffindor could possibly be derived from griffin, which is a creature in mythology with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle.

In Old English and Old High German dor means gate or door.

In French "d'or" means "of gold," one of the Gryffindor House colours, though it can also come from the Greek word "dora" meaning "gift".

A combination can be assumed; "Golden Gift of the Lion".

"Griffe" is the French word for "claw", which could refer to the claw of the lion.

"Gryffindor" could very well be explained by heraldry: "Gryffin" would then stand for the griffin beast, and the "[d]or" would refer to the metal tincture "[d'] or" (Middle English for "[of] gold", derived from French; corresponds to yellow).

Gryffindor is also a pun on the golden gryffin, which is a lion that only has eagle wings, so it has the head and front paws of a lion, and has golden fur and feathers. Even the French for Griffindor, Griffondor is a French homophone for the actual beast, Griffon d'Or.